Retinoic Acid Receptors

Retinoic acid receptors (RARs) are nuclear hormone receptors of the NR1B class, which function as heterodimers with retinoid X receptors (RXRs). There are three distinct RAR subtypes: RARα, present in most tissue types; and RARβ and RARγ, with more selective expression.

Related Targets

Retinoic acid receptors (RARs) are nuclear hormone receptors of the NR1B class, which function as heterodimers with retinoid X receptors (RXRs). There are three distinct RAR subtypes: RARα, RARβ and RARγ. RARα is present in most tissue types, whereas RARβ and RARγ expression is more selective.

RXR-RAR heterodimers act as ligand-dependent transcriptional regulators by binding to the specific retinoic acid response element (RARE) found in the promoter regions of target genes. In the absence of an RAR agonist, RXR-RAR recruits co-repressor proteins such as NCoR and associated factors such as histone deacetylase to maintain a condensed chromatin structure. RAR agonist binding stimulates co-repressor release and co-activator complexes, such as histone acetyltransferase, are recruited to activate transcription.

RARs transduce retinoid signals in vivo, which mediates proper embryogenesis, differentiation and growth arrest. Specifically, RXRα-RARγ heterodimers are necessary for growth arrest and visceral and primitive endodermal differentiation, whereas RXRα-RARα is required for cAMP-dependent parietal endodermal differentiation. In vitro it has been difficult to elucidate the roles of individual subtypes as functional RAR knockouts generate artificial redundancies that are thought not to exist under normal conditions.

Retinoid Receptors Scientific Review

Written by Alexander Moise, this review summarizes the nature of retinoid receptors, their isotype and isoform variants and modulation of retinoid signaling. Compounds available from Tocris are listed.

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